“What I find striking about this song is that it wasn’t written as a performance piece. Towser was famously challenged by his producer/manager Kit Lambert to fill up a blank 10 minutes of vinyl on their in-progress LP. He responded with this mini opera. I have vexed and divided feelings about the operas — mini, …
This lady should have won…
An excellent Dengue Fever montage of sound check and live performance:
With Tragic Magic – Reflections On Power Pop Michael Chabon has once more proven himself to be my genius doppelganger, saying everything (and more) on a subject dear to me in a voice that is everything (and more) I’d hope mine to be. Being in the world with him at the same time removes any …
Not Van Morrison, but def. in the spirit of Van the Man… Thanks to BoingBoing:
Upon hearing of East Portland Blog’s celebration of 2011 as “The Year of Van Morrison,” Tim Midgett registered his discontent with Van by sending me this link to a WFMU blog entry about Van’s curious 1967 recording sessions undertaken for Bang Records. http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/van_morrisons_c.html The entry is a few years old, and at one time it …
Obvious thoughts RE: “Year of Van Morrison” contrivance: 1. In high school everyone seemed to think that Morrison’s last name was “Van Morrison,” just like an older relative of Van Halen. 2. Mr. Morrison is very short, but this physical limitation did not prevent him from taking an adult-sized helping from the Communal Cocaine Pile …
Portland, OR January 2, 2011 – Ending months of negotiation and unbridled industry speculation, EastPortlandBlog.com announced today its decision to declare 2011 to be the “Year of Van Morrison” in East Portland, on the internet, and across the world. “We are delighted that our year-long celebration of Van Morrison, the man, his music and his …
This is a “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” moment for pop music, if that makes sense to anyone. The performances are dignified, reverential, lovely really, but it’s the deftly chosen response shots from celebrities, each of whom lit up their own artistic or cultural supermoment in the years since the songs were released which project …
This is beautiful. I couldn’t agree with John Roderick more. And there are two unspoken, ignored elephant in the room, reasons that year-end, best albums top ten lists are passe: 1. Downloads are eclipsing hard copy sales and the popular perception of the album as an indivisible artistic unit is therefore evaporating. Why djinn up …
In the greater Portland area there are 160 music venues, give or take a few, that will feature live music on any given night, many featuring music everyday of the week. It really is a music lover’s paradise. Reggae, punk, indie, alt, rock, you name it, Portland has got it. Having lived in or around …
. “The Trick is to Keep Breathing” is magical. The perfect combination of trip hop and alternative rock. Shirley Manson’s voice is wispy and vulnerable, complementing the song’s simple message, “the trick is to keep breathing”. Released in 1999, it’s production was ahead of it’s time. Not to mention the ambient feel is quite thought-inducing …
I’ve reallly come to love this Gospel-tinged hip hop:
Of all the great choral works of Christmas, the many compositions of “O Magnum Mysterium” including those by Poulenc and Victoria stand apart in their power and beauty. But Morten Lauridsen’s more recent composition of “O Magnum Mysterium” has an inner emotional strength and beauty that I’ve seldom experienced in sacred music. This is a …
Over the decades and centuries of Western culture no other holiday music has proliferated or endured like Christmas music. From old English carols to the present favourites, Christmas music can make up a considerable portion of your average collection, which is such the case with my own. When we’re all tired of hearing the same …
Neko Case has created a lot of compelling music in the last decade, both as an alt-country chanteuse and as a New Pornographer. However, my sentimental favorite is 2000’s Furnace Room Lullaby, the album that propelled her out of the Pacific Northwest and into international stardom. Furnace Room Lullaby firmly established a sort of trademarked …
In the very best and driest sarcastic sendups, you don’t see the seam where acceptable everyday life ends and comic overstatement begins. This vid is exactly that sort of commentary– clever, profoundish and a wee-bit sadness inducing. (Thanks to Stephen Rabow for this.)
Meet SirAllAboutMusic. He works at Subway and lives with Mom. He’s been doing these vids for years. It’s not The Onion. It’s not SNL.
As with every album since Monster, it’s as bland as an accountant’s tie collection, but it still has Michael Stipe’s voice on it, and that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?
Kayne West’s sampling of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man on his most recent album not withstanding, it’s generally not too hip nowadays to pay homage to the icons of early 70’s progressive rock. This brief clip is of one of my adolescent musical heroes, Keith Emerson, working out some piano parts from Emerson Lake …
It’s the holidays, and that means it’s time for Pink Martini. Randy Rendfeld sent me several excellent links to Pink Martini material, past and present: The Pinksters performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Monday, 12/20/2010. Just two days earlier (12/18/2010), Thomas (Lauderdale), China (Forbes) and the gang brought their rollicking genre-bending orchestra to …
. Seattle’s classic, fantastic, “hard ass soul” band, Staxx Brothers and East Portland Blog are very pleased to announce the release of “Corn Rows for Christmas,” a powerful, fresh, new, original, soaring, heartfelt Christmas song which is presented here as a gift for Staxx Brothers fans, Christmas fans, music fans, everyone… View the very fun …
Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins singing “This Train is Bound for Glory” at the Johnny Cash Christmas Show ’77: .
This is a delicious and evocative clip. Luar Na Lubre is a Celtic band from Galicia, a region of Northern Spain where the inhabitants are descended from “one of the first tribes of Celtic heritage in Europe,” says Wikipedia. Vocalist Sara Louraço Vidal (who should be atop Maxim’s list of hottest singing cellists every year) …
Underrated is a common enough term for artists we like that don’t end up selling millions of records and becoming household names. I think it is safe to call John Hiatt underrated, however. This is a guy who started out writing songs done by everyone from Three Dog Night (and Hard Labor was a big …
The Dream of the 90s is alive in Portland! This new cable TV series, called Portlandia, starts January 10 and promises either quirky greatness or an epic meta hipster fail. Starring, along with SNL’s Fred Armisen, one-time Portlander Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, author of “Call the Doctor,” one of the great tunes of the 90s, …
I’m a huge fan of Mark Eitzel and his band American Music Club, so to me this 1988 video interview of a beer swilling and hilariously self-deprecating Eitzel is manna from heaven. I’ve probably seen Mark Eitzel play solo about 40 times (seriously). I’ve also seen the twice reformed American Music club about 5 times. …
Prior to and contemporaneous with, Grunge, Seattle was a center for great melodic pop from such luminaries as the Posies, the Young Fresh Fellows, (whose leader Scott McCaughey went on to play in REM for years) Sister Psychic, Flake, Stumpy Joe, Model Rockets, Presidents of the United States of America and numerous others. Out of …
Visual artist and avant-garde musician, Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, has died in a Northern California hospital at the age of 69 from complications arising from multiple sclerosis. The Village Voice gives their brief take here. Entertainment Weekly describes Beefheart’s five best albums here. Rolling Stone’s 1970 cover story on Beefheart can be quite …